Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an arrangement for testing a control unit via a test environment, having a computer-based test management tool, wherein the test management tool is configured for model-based development and/or management of at least one test plan implemented as a data structure, and the test plan has at least one test. The invention additionally relates to a method for testing a control unit via a test environment, including the step of developing a model-based test plan implemented as a data structure for testing the control unit on a computer-based test management tool, wherein the test plan has at least one test.
Description of the Background Art
During the development and testing of control units, such as for motor vehicles, great quantities of data are produced, since a great number of test results are produced, in addition to the test plans themselves, when test plans are implemented in a test environment. Moreover, the growing complexity and the demands on the functions of control units have the consequence that the person responsible for the test must continually create, administer, and subsequently carry out new test cases tailored to the complexity and the requirements.
Test execution itself is increasingly becoming a bottleneck, since the demands for complexity naturally have effects on the test environment, and the great number of tests make the execution very resource-intensive overall. At present, it is no longer possible in practice to execute all test cases with every environment constellation, since the time available within a development cycle for the control unit must be used to maximum effectiveness. Also problematic are the physical size and weight of the test environments, such as in the case of hardware-in-the-loop environments, in particular, and also the noise generated during execution of the tests.
The great number of tests to be performed has also led to the result that analysis of the tests is carried out, and in this process the causes of any errors are sought, and new tests are developed on this basis, during the work hours of the person responsible for the tests. Execution of the tests then generally takes place outside of this person's work hours, for instance overnight as so-called “lights-out” testing.
However, it is problematic in this situation that, due to the automatic execution of the tests on the one hand, and the absence of the responsible person on the other hand, errors in the assembly of the tests or in the setup or configuration of the test environment can have the effect that invalid tests, which is to say tests that cannot be performed, are supposed to be executed. This has the result that complete execution of the tests, and hence also of subsequent tests, is blocked or a test sequence within a test plan is completely terminated. It is especially problematic here that oftentimes information from execution of the test is lost, making troubleshooting all the more difficult.